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Bookbug: songs, rhymes and stories for pre-school children and their parents and carers. 10.30am today and every Friday (and Tuesday), Muirhouse Library, Pennywell Court. All welcome: free.
Crafty Books Time: The Sea. Crafts and stories for the under-10s; this week What’s On the Beach?. 2.30-3.30pm, Leith Library, 28-30 Ferry Road. Free: no booking required. ‘You’ll have a WHALE of a time!’
Bookbug Week: to celebrate this annual event – for which this year’s theme is Bookbug’s Big Bedtime Story – there will be lots of special sessions today, all including fun, songs, rhymes and stories for children aged 0-4 years and their parents and carers. 10.30am at each of Colinton Library, Thorburn Road, Balerno Library, Main Street, Currie Library, 210 Lanark Road, Kirkliston Library, Station Road and South Queensferry Library, Shore Road.
Celebrity Organ Recital: Roger Fisher, Organist Emeritus, Chester Cathedral, will play Hollins Concert Overture in C Minor, Harris Prelude in E Flat, Rheinberger Sonata No 8 in E Minor and Liszt Ad nos, ad salutarem undam. 7.30pm, St Cuthbert’s Parish Church, 5 Lothian Road. Admission £10/£5 (school-age children free).
LGBT Women’s Wellbeing Group: an inclusive group offering the chance to meet other LGBT women in a relaxed environment, with chat, info and activities promoting health and wellbeing. The group is open to all LGBT women and to transgender people who identify primarily as women. This month: Time After Time – a visit to the National Museum of Scotland. 2-4.30pm: for more information and to be added to the group’s mailing list please contact Alison Wren on 0131 652 3283 or at alison@lgbthealth.org.uk.
Easel Sketching in the Gallery – May: led by artist Damian Callan. A different subject every month, sometimes with a model. All materials supplied. 2-4pm, Gallery main floor, Scottish National Gallery, The Mound. Free: no booking required.
Gallery Social: ARTISTS ROOMS – Roy Litchenstein. A relaxed and informal guided tour, with refreshments, for anyone affected by dementia and their relatives, friends and supporters. 10.30am-12 noon, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art ONE, Belford Road. Please book your place by calling 0131 624 6560. Supported by the Friends of NGS.
Persevere: the Quintinshill Disaster 100 Years On. 22nd May 2015 is the 100th anniversary of the UK’s worst ever train disaster: it happened at Quintinshill (Gretna) and left over 200 men of the 1/7th Royal Scots dead. This ‘Leith Battalion’ had trained at the Drill Hall, which later became the focal point for families seeking information about what had happened. Now a group of community actors from Active Inquiry and Strange Town Young Theatre Company have researched and devised a piece of promenade theatre, Persevere, which guides the audience around the Drill Hall, enabling them to catch glimpses of stories of Leithers saying goodbye to sons and brothers, hearing news of the crash and coping with the aftermath. 8.30pm, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny Street. Tickets cost £6 and may be purchased via eventbrite here (booking fee applies). Also at 6.30pm and 8.30pm on 23rd May, 6.30pm and 8.30pm on 20th June and 6.30pm on 12th and 13th August 2015.
Seven of the 7th. Persevere will be accompanied by an exhibition, Seven of the 7th, researched and curated by a group of community researchers and Citizen Curator and artist Jan-Bee Brown, in which the stories of seven of the soldiers involved will be explored. The exhibition also includes The Tree of Life, produced in partnership with Pilmeny Youth Centre and artist Heather Scott, in which pupils from Leith Academy have researched and helped to make a glass tag for each of the 216 soldiers who died. Launch at 6pm tonight, then 10am-5pm Monday to Saturday, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny Street. Free entry. Ends 13th August 2015.
In Focus: Gavin Hamilton’s Achilles Lamenting the Death of Patroclus (1760). Art historian Ailsa Turner discusses this painting, and the Scottish artist, who enjoyed an international reputation as a leading exponent of the 18th century neo-classical movement. 12.45-1.15pm, Scottish National Gallery, The Mound. Free: no booking required.
Poetry and Music in the Rosslyn Chapel: poets Brian Johnston, Margaret Christie and Jamie Reid Baxter will read from their own work, accompanied by the Miguda Quartet playing Haydn’s String Quartet Op 76 No 2. ‘Marvellous poets, fantastic music and a magical setting’. 7.30-9.30pm, Rosslyn Chapel, Tickets cost £8 (£6 for members of Penicuik Community Arts) and may be obtained from the PCAA Craft Co-Operative Shop, 4 West Street, Penicuik, or online here.
Balerno Village Screen: a community cinema run by volunteers, offering free admission and funded by donations. Tonight’s film is God Help the Girl (15), 7.30pm St Joseph’s Hall, St Joseph’s Centre, Balerno. Although all screenings are free, the organisers ask that you register in advance to give them an idea of numbers – free tickets for each film may be reserved via eventbrite here or obtained from The Mill Cafe or Balerno Post Office.
The Wynntown Marshals: the Edinburgh-based Americana/alt country band performs tracks from a new album The End of the Golden Age. 5pm, Coda, Bank Street, The Mound.
Let’s Glow: PASS Out. A new showcase for Final Year HND Acting and Performance students at Edinburgh College The group will devise three new, 20 minute pieces to be guided and shaped by three of Scotland’s leading practitioners in the field of creating new work. Multi award winning directors Gerry Mulgrew (Communicado), Fiona Miller (Tricky Hat) and Gordon Dougall (Limelight) will bring their vast experience to help the students showcase their abilities in Scotland’s home of new writing. 8pm, Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street. Tickets cost £12/£8 and are available from the Traverse Box Office, in person, by calling 0131 228 1404 or online here. Also at same time on 23rd May 2015.
Scream: The Poetry Circus presents two hours of pure poetic mayhem with sixteen performance poets, including Freddie Alexander, Agnes Torok and Amanda Baker. Comperes: Emily Elver and Max Scratchmann. 7.30pm, Dalriada, 77 Promenade, Portobello. Tickets cost £3 and are available now from the bar.
Hidden Door: the 2015 Hidden Door starts today – nine days of music, visual art, cinema and theatre in a unique, abandoned location in Edinburgh. This year events will take place in two venues – the Secret Courtyard in King’s Stables Road and the Bongo Club (not an ‘abandoned’ venue!) in Cowgate. Tonight’s opening event includes three music acts, three theatrical performances, art and short films. For more information see Hidden Door’s website here. Tickets for each day may be purchased from Brown Paper Tickets.
The Correspondents: singer Mr Bruce and producer Chucks are ‘now something of a global phenomenon…prepare to be swept away by the humour and infectious energy of this incredible live show’. 7-10pm, The Bongo Club, Cowgate. Tickets cost £8 in advance and may be purchased via club’s website here. Tickets on the door will cost £10 sta.
Edinburgh Spy Week: Publish Your Own Spy Fiction! In this free workshop Amazon best-selling author Tim Stevens takes you through writing a thriller and publishing it yourself, electronically. 2.30-4pm, G.04, 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh. Places are limited and booking is required via eventbrite here. Publish Your Own Spy Fiction forms part of Edinburgh Spy Week, a unique public event organised by the University of Edinburgh’s Department of English Literature and focusing on espionage fiction and film and the ways in which secrecy and spying run through our history and culture.
LGBT Film Nights: see LGBT themed and mainstream films in a friendly, sociable setting. Vote via email and at the events for the film choices each month. You are welcome just to turn up, but please be aware that the film will already have been chosen. 6.30pm (film starts 7pm)-9.30pm, LGBT Health & Wellbeing, 9 Howe Street. To join the mailing list or to find out more please call 0131 523 1100 or email admin@lgbthealth.org.uk.
Edinburgh Spy Week: James Robertson – Secrecy, Literature and the State. From Macbeth to the fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson and John Buchan, literature of or about Scotland has often focused on hidden agendas, double lives and the deceits of power and authority. Leading Scottish novelist James Robertson looks at some aspects of this tradition, drawing on examples from his own work. 5.30-6.30pm, Informatics Forum, University of Edinburgh, 10 Crichton Street. Free and open to all: booking is required and may be made via eventbrite here. Secrecy, Literature and the State forms part of Edinburgh Spy Week, a unique public event organised by the University of Edinburgh’s Department of English Literature and focusing on espionage fiction and film and the ways in which secrecy and spying run through our history and culture.
Mhor Festival. And here’s your second chance to get away – ‘A fun weekend of activities and antics, feasting and frolicking, music and magic’. The line-up for this two-day event includes The Soul Foundation, Scottish Ceilidh Allstars, b.ding, Shiverin’ Sheiks, Stefan van de Sande and King Eider – but there’s also food (from a bake-off to an omelette challenge and a Great Scottish Feast), drink, art, theatre and lots of children’s activities. And which other festivals offer you a Sunday morning panel review of the papers, a raft race and the chance for Tea and Tango? Monachyle Mhor Farm, Balquhidder FK19 8PQ. For tickets call 01877 384622 or email monachyle@mhor.net: ticket prices vary. Camping and parking are available, and the festival ends (late) on Sunday 24th May 2015. ‘A great celebration of local culture and a platform for showcasing local produce’.
